Tuesday, December 31, 2013

If you believe the moon
is made of cheese, does it really matter what kind?

NSAtiness:
Not only does the NSA listen to your phone calls, read your emails
and monitor your intenet use, they've got a whole 'nother bunch of
tricks. Like intercepting computers on their way to customers,
inserting spyware and then putting them back in the delivery system.
Making custom-made cables and USB sticks that steal your data.
Modifying cellphones so that the NSA can remotely turn on the cameras
and microphones. The report didn't mention doing the same to TV sets,
but... NSA describes these activities as “enabling NSA to keep
everyone, everywhere, under surveillance all the time
defend the nation and its allies.”

The
Undead:
Higher unemployment keeps wage growth down, and helps boost profit
margins and earnings. What's not to like about 7%?

Drip,
Drip Drip:Wells Fargo has joined the crowd in
settling up with Fannie Mae for the fraudulent MBS paper they passed
back before it all fell apart. The $591 million settlement was to
“to resolve repurchase requests on certain loans.” Wells joins
BofA (411.6 billion), Citi ($968 million), and JPMorgan ($670
million) in paying up without admitting any wrongdoing. These
settlements are just those made with Fannie; the banks have also
ponied up to Freddie Mac and FHFA – but did nothing wrong, it was
just a misunderstanding.

Investment
Reminder: It's 2014 and 1.3 million
folks are no longer acting as a direct conduit between the Treasury
and the economy.

The
Beatings Go On:
In 2012 the
top 10% in the US got the largest share of US income since 1917. The
real median income of college-educated men over 24 has fallen 10%
since 2007. Only half the women and 60% of men who had three or more
years in at a job that they lost in 2009 – 2011 got another job by
the end of 2012. The economy is recovering.

Touchdown!
Remember, along about half-time at the Superbowl, that the average
ticket price is above $4000 - and that the NFL is a tax-exempt
non-profit outfit. Just ask Jerry "Non-Profit" Jones.

Equality:
To much concern in the Duck Dukedom, a gay couple will be married
while on a float in the Rose Parade on New Year's, about as
reasonable as the hetros who get hitched underwater or jumping out of
planes. At least they're not getting married in a church.

Monday, December 30, 2013

The unexamined life is
not worth living, the examined one often isn't any better.

Shut
Up And Suffer:
The first 1.3 million deadbeats have been kicked to the curb, with
another three million to follow in the months ahead. It's for their
own good, since – according to the GOP – as soon as they're flat
broke they take any job available at any pay. Never mind that there
are 3 seekers for every job opening or that those unemployed for over
27 weeks have only a 12% chance of finding a job. And if they do,
they are likely to make about 40% less than they did previously,
before Wall Street killed the economy. That's why they are more
likely to drop out of the employment pool altogether, lowering the
unemployment rate. How are they going to feed their families or pay
the rent? Nobody cares, at least nobody in power in Washington. Ante
Up:
The great Las Vegas housing recovery has had a relapse; with house
sales falling 15.4% m/m and 14.6% y/y – to a rate lower than any
November since 2008.

Oops:
One of NSA's justifications for scooping up all of our phone calls
is that they have to in order to catch those who are talking to
overseas terrorists. Haven't they ever heard of caller-ID? Yeah,
turns out they have known all along, even before 9/11. And
intercepted
lots of calls the terrorists made about what planes to hijack
and how to fly
them into buildings. Brides
of Frankenstein:
Phil Robertson's gay tirade and endorsement of slavery were not
caused by the effects of too much celebrity on too small a brain,
the brain was too small to begin with. Witness his prior devotion to
getting girls to cook, carry and marry at age 15. And the Bible,
rather presciently, also gave Americans the right to hunt. Secret
Ingredient:
Not only are they reading your email and monitoring your internet
use, they also know what you're doing when you're not on line. How?
By intercepting computers (laptops, etc) after they've been shipped,
spiriting them of to secret locations, installing spyware that allows
the government to monitor and control the computers remotely. The
infected computers are then put back into the delivery system and on
their way.

The
Dog Ate It:
Iraq's Oil Ministry has asked the Kurds to explain where 106 million
barrels of oil has gone, who got the money, about $10 billion, and
where's Baghdad's share. Well, the Kurds get to keep only 17% of the
cash from the oil exports they report, and...

Confusion:
The US is arming the Shiite government in Iraq to kill al
Qadea/Sunni forces in Iraq's northwestern desert that are funded by
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while just across the border in Syria the US
is arming the Sunni forces (also al Qaeda among other things - the
"Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" operates in both
countries) to overthrow the Shiite Assad government. Iraq, of
course, also supports Iran as best it can and is the source for about
80% of the supplies reaching Assad. Ever since Ronnie thought arming
the jihadis in Afghanistan was a Good Idea the US has chosen the
wrong bunch of zealots nearly
every time. Finger
Pointing:
Big promises followed by poor execution and massive disappointment,
frustration and anger. Just goes to show that the private sector can
screw up, too. Talking here about Christmas deliveries, not
Obamacare. Secret
Santa:
American corporations have been raking in incredible amounts of cash
as their profits mount. Trouble is, they can't find anything useful
to do with the stuff. Expanding their production lines is a
non-starter because there are not customers out there with any money.
So they are giving the cash back to their shareholders by buying back
shares and thus driving up prices. Last year they spent $445 billion
buying back their own stock. That's nearly what the Pentagon's budget
pretends to be. And that's what is behind the continual rise in
stock prices - outrageous profits spent on driving up the price of
shares. Ah, greed always finds a way.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Vive
La Difference: Somehow we're supposed to
feel better if some corporation keeps tracks us 24/7 instead of the
NSA. How's that work?

Ring
Of Fired: As a bribery/corruption
investigation creeps ever closer to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan
(and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy), three of his top cabinet
ministers resigned because their sons had been implicated, and
Erdogan fired 10 ministers “so they could run in mayoral elections”
and replaced them with party hacks loyal to him. Justice officials
say the administration is interfering with a court-directed
investigation. Statoil
and Total have withdrawn from a planned pipeline designed to
carry Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe, and the
Turkish lira fell sharply. Christmas
Spirit: Despite the supposed economic
recovery underway in Europe as a result of the ECB/EU 'all austerity
all the time' programs, in Italy Christsmas sales were down 11.4% and
one in five families did without presents.

The
Light's Better Over Here: The White
House is delighted to point out that the federal budget deficit has
dropped to 4.1% of GDP. They don't so much point out that the the
2009 – 2012 deficits were the biggest since WWII.

Travel
Advisory: Tourists considering traveling
to or through Montana should be aware that Judge Baugh – the idiot
who sentenced a teacher to one month in jail for raping a 14 year-old
student – is now forcing a man who beat his girlfriend to a pulp
and broke her face in three places to write “Boys do not hit girls”
5,000 times. Uphill
Battle: The US Chamber of Commerce says
it wants to make sure that in 2014 the GOP has “no fools on our
ticket.” Not including incumbents running for re-election, one
supposes.

Suspicious
Behavior: Trying to improve his
knowledge of a foreign language earned a traveler at Philadelphia
International Airport six hours of detention, screening and
interrogation by Homeland Security and FBI agents, who thought that
flashcards in Arabic were decidedly a threat to national security.
And a judge says it was reasonable and acceptable. Settling
The Bill: A Federal judge has rejected
BP's attempt to weasel out of paying for $7.8 billion of the damage
they did to Gulf Coast businesses.

Merry
Christmas: Obama has sent 75 Hellfire
missiles and 10 drones to Iraq in the wake of an outbreak of weddings
Al Qaeda violence. And best wishes for another year of sectarian
based bombings and retaliation.

Doing
God's Work: The only Roman Catholic official actually jailed in the US in
all of the sex abuse scandals of recent years has been freed,
because child endangerment laws do not cover what the Roman Catholic
priests routinely did (and still do?) to little kids.

Resolution:
"Any honest budget expert will tell you that the U.S.’s fiscal
position is unsustainable. Two lines -- outlays and revenues --
growing further apart in perpetuity. Economist Herb Stein famously
said that if something can’t go on forever, it will stop. He didn’t
say when." Priorities:
While Congress is happily cutting food stamps and tossing over a
million unemployed into the gutter, the Pentagon is spending $355
billion over the next decade to modernize its nuclear weaponry.
Didn’t the Soviet Union collapse in 1989? Isn’t China our biggest
trading partner? Just who are we so afraid of?

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Credit
Where Credit'll Come Due:
In November, consumer spending rose 0.5% while income grew only
0.2%, which is better than the 0.1% fall in incomes in October. The
theory is that consumers were dipping into their savings, but mostly
they don't have any and they're just putting it on the never-never. Smoke/Fire:
Greek austerity programs have so impoverished the citizenry that
many have resorted to burning wood to heat their houses. So now the
authorities are offering free electricity in an attempt to cut down
on the unhealthy smog blanketing the cities.

Sorry:
British giganormous bank HSBC having admitted it had laundered
billions of dollars for drug cartels, paid a $1.9 billion fine –
about a month's income – said they were sorry, and went back to
serving their customers.

Baseline:
There's poverty, then there's living on $1.25 a day or less as one
out of five people in the world and over 50% those in sub-Saharan
Africa. Changes you view of inequality.

Modern
Times:
Rape victims in Memphis are trying to get a federal court to prod
the city into processing its backlog of 12,000 unexamined rape kits.
Justice delayed is, undoubtedly, more rapes.

Crass
Flow:
Blackstone Group owns 41,000 houses in the US and is renting them out
and securitizing the rental income – RBS is the new MBS, and about
as clever. What could go wrong? Besides the renters being the same
folks who defaulted on their mortgages a while back, I mean. Patriot
Games: Egypt's military junta has jailed the three most prominent
leaders of Egypt's 2011 'Arab spring' uprising. Ain't gonna have
none of that protest stuff no more. The Parting Shot:

Monday, December 23, 2013

Let's just lower the
eligibility age for Medicare to zero, like we should have long ago.

Foreplay:
President Obama ordered "combat-ready" soldiers to South
Sudan where growing violence is becoming all out civil war, a
UN compound had been overrun, and the capital of the oil-rich
Unity state has been taken by rebel troops. Several US aircraft were
fired on and at least 4 US soldiers wounded. Spade,
Spade:
Syria's foreign minister notes that Saudi Arabia is its main enemy,
set on destroying the Assad regime through support for the jihadist
(al Qaeda, etc) rebels - and has been doing so for years. It's about
religion, and pipelines.

Hard
Place:
Just as Italy's politcal leadership is beginning to understand that
the country has had as
much austerity as it can – or will – tolerate, the ECB tells
them they “cannot afford any slippage on the public accounts,”
and that more “labor market flexibility” is needed, which is to
say that wages must be cut even more. Stay tuned.

Numbers,
Acts:
If we are to keep global climate change to a 2ºC, 80% of currently
identified fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground. Invest
accordingly.

Ubiquity:
New revelations document that NSA spying included (and includes):
charities, Germans, the Israeli PM and the chief of the EU. Let's
make it simple: The NSA has continually spied on everyone, all the
while, and has for a long, long time. Because democracy...

Smooth:
In the end, what is hiding behind the "labor market reforms"
and further "wage moderation" being demanded of Madrid
just might be the end of the reign in Spain.

Or,
Just Because:The
administration continues to maintain that Americans have no legal
standing to challenge the NSA's 24/7 monitoring of citizens because
the surveillance is secret and thus the citizens cannot prove they've
been spied upon. Besides, the administration explains, the NSA's
warrantless was “authorized” by President Bush back in 2001.
There was no explanation, however, of how in the world any president
could authorize violating the Constitution he had sworn to uphold
and protect.

Serving
& Protecting:
The Salinas, CA police have received a $650,000, 16-ton armored war
wagon from the Pentagon to be used in protecting officers from... Cashing
In: In
November, 42% of all residential sales were all-cash purchases by
investors, up from October's 39%. But this trend may reverse quickly
as the Fed begins tapering and asset prices begin to collapse without
the Fed's constant puffing into the balloon. Spot
Quiz: Pick one: a) We
have the NSA on the run, or b) A much
worse surveillance state is in the making.

Siren
Song:
"I think the priority for the country should be economic
growth." And it will be, right to the very end, when
everything's gone but the suffering.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

“We have forgotten the
basic lesson of the crash: Global problems need global solutions. And
because we failed to learn from the last crisis, the world’s
bankers are carrying us toward the next one.” Gordon
Brown, former British PMThe
Lasting Word:
The vitriolic outrage from the religious right in defending some
bearded backwoodsman's homophobia misses a simple point: 10 million
gay consumers (plus their families and friends) are far more
important to advertisers than a handful of bigots. Hidden beneath
all
the noise from The Duck Hunter's fans, a Federal court overturned
Utah’s marriage equality ban and New Mexico became 17th state
with legal
same-sex marriage.

Priorities:
Most Americans would cut the defense budget before cutting Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid and spending for the poor.

Windmill
Tilting: A federal
appellate court has ruled that a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia for
providing support to al-Qaida in the 911 attacks. While the exact
amount of money and training the Saudi's provided is classified, the
odds of any of this seeing daylight in court are about as long as
that of a bunch of Saudis flying planes into NYC skyscrapers.

Have
You Stopped Beating Your Wife?
The NSA task force report includes a recommendation that NSA “not
use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in
financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial system.”
Wonder why that came up.

The
Message: . Our current
lackluster economy is a reflection of the phenomenal productivity of
capitalism. Labor's productivity has increased to the point that
very little labor is needed, thus the excess and unemployed workers.
Interest rates are low because so much capital has already been
accumulated that more is not needed. We can produce far more than we
can buy; the problem is distribution.

Either
/ Or: Headlines report that
Walgreen's quarterly profits soared 68% while it's profit margin
slipped. Seems they did better investing in other companies than they
did with diapers.

Do
Not Adjust Your Set: The
government now guesses that the nation's GDP grew at an annual rate
of 4.1% in 3Q2013 instead of the 2.0% that was their first guess.

Head
Bone Connected To The...
First Wall Street and the banksters threw everybody out of their
houses. Then Wall Street and the banksters bought
up all the houses and began renting them out. Then Wall Street
and the banksters raised the rent. Now we have another group of the
evicted as rents and incomes head in opposite directions. Wonder
who's to blame?

Evolution:
Capitalism was originally based on thrift, saving part of the
production to invest in new production. Then it became based on
credit. These days it seems to involve less thrift than theft.

Just
Saying No: A Portuguese
court has ruled that the government cannot cut pension payments to
retired workers – which the government was planning on doing under
guidance from the IMF/ECB/EU. The Parting Shot:

Friday, December 20, 2013

Why are we so concerned about the undeserving
poor and not the undeserving rich?

Diagnosis,
Prognosis:
Giorgio Napolitano, Italy's President, warns that the “widespread
social tension and unrest” in the country as a result of austerity
policies and the drawn-out recession “has put a severe strain on
social cohesion”. He said that the threat of insurrection must be
confronted by the rule of law. There should have been an 'or else'
but he couldn't seem to figure out what it might be.

Snappy
Quiz:
Who is investing in America's future? Right, trick question; no
one is. Bible
Study: The fall of Adam
and Eve is a metaphor for the demise of our hunter-gatherer
lifestyle. Eden is the recollection of an oppressed peasantry of the
more humane world of their happier ancestors. Before we bit the
apple, we lived off the fat of the land. Hunter-gatherers lived
longer, ate better, and worked less than their agriculturalist
descendants. Average adult height, an excellent proxy for
childhood nutrition did not return to levels seen in the Palaeolithic
until a mere 150 years ago. Re-Run
: New unemployment
filings rose again last week, up 11,000 over last week's massive 22%
jump to 368,000. There were 2,884,000 continuing claims – but
nearly half of those will evaporate come January, which will
dramatically improve the unemployment rate as
the economic boom continues. Ante
Up: A 54 year-old woman
was scooped up at the El Paso border crossing as part of a random
screening program, strip searched, and subjected to body cavity
probes. When nothing was found she was handcuffed and taken to a
local hospital where she underwent a CT scan and other examinations
including “an observed bowel movement.” No drugs were found and
she was eventually released, with a $5,000 bill from the hospital for
the 'procedures.' The other stuff was free.

Spin
Cycle: In November, for
the third consecutive month, sales of existing homes fell as rising
prices and increased borrowing costs put a damper on the nascent
housing bubble. The explainers had some convoluted story about how
this was part of the ongoing housing recovery, but I lost interest.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

"Economic growth is the biggest
destroyer of the ecology... People who think you can have a growing
economy and a healthy environment are wrong. If we do not reduce our
numbers, nature will do it for us." Biologist Neil
Dawe.

Help
Yourself:
Upset by the “despicable
and barbaric' treatment in NYC of their (female) ambassador to
the United Nation , Indian authorities
removed the concrete security barriers protecting the US embassy in
New Delhi.

Schizoid:
U.S. housing starts jumped to nearly a six-year high in November, up
22% m/m and the highest
level since Feb 2008 - just before the you-know-what. But
mortgage
applications are falling, and a large number of 'starts' was for
the multi-family rental market and in absolute (not seasonally
adjusted) numbers starts had the largest m/m drop in 5 years.

Conditional
Phrase:
Turns out that the folks at Facebook can see what you type, even if
you change your mind and don't post the comment. It'll turn out that
they aren't the only ones...

Medical
Expense:
Research shows that travel decreases your risk of a heart attack and
helps promote healthy brains. Ask your doctor for a script for that
trip to Paris.

Potato,
Patahto:
The citizenry feel the PCE inflation rate that includes food and
energy comes closer to their experience while the economists at the
Fed prefer the 'core PCE' data which is a better predictor of what
future inflation will be. One size does not fit all.

Where's
Waldo?
If Waldo carries a cell phone, the NSA knows where he is, 24/7. If
Waldo signs on the web, NSA knows where he went and what he did. If
Waldo calls home, the NSA knows where he called from and how long he
talked. And, Waldo, you'd best not look at those
sites
any more...

Christmas
Seasoning:
Jack Kingston (Repulsive - GA) says that poor kids should have to
"sweep the floors" to get free school lunches. In
Mississippi an assistant school principal, backed by the
principal and the school board, forced "a pathetic dyke" to
use the boys' bathroom.

Join
The Club:
Demonstrating just how poor a research tool self-reporting is, a new
study revealed that one in every 200 U.S. women experienced ‘virgin
pregnancy’. Gabriel's been busy.

Comedian:
Senator Mark Udall wants the CIA to release a previously unknown,
highly classified report detailing the torture conducted by the CIA
and identifying the subjects tortured, the nature of the torture, and
the so-far secret 'undisclosed locations' where the torture was
carried out. And a pony. He wants a pony for Christmas, too. Passive
Voice, Misuse of:
The lead sentence "Since a nuclear weapon went off over
Hiroshima.." should be changed to: "Since
the United States, the only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon
outside a test site, killed 60 to 80,000 civilians at Hiroshima..." If,
Then:
A US district court has ruled that Catholic employers can deny birth
control health insurance coverage for their employees. And if you
work for a Christian Scientists you get no health insurance at all. The
Easy Way Out:
By and large the political and social discussions about climate
change and the crushing debt loads on future generations and running
out of petroleum and all that sort of thing are a waste of time -
these are not problems we need concern ourselves with, because we
will all be dead. And we won't have to have a nuclear war to get
there, either.

Doomed:
The nation's drug czar says that our kids are inclined to
'experiment' with marijuana nearly as much as their grandparents did. Subtle
Differences:
If you ram your car into a crowd and kill 15 people gathered outside
a church for a wedding (assuming you are not a rich 16 year-old
Texan), you will be charged with homicide. If you are an Obama and
you kill 15
Yemeni on their way to a wedding....

Though
Police:
In Texas, an appellate court has rulled that the local sheriff can
get a search warant based on his guess that you are 'fixing to'
commit a crime. Sometime soon. Maybe.

The
Goal:
NSA's prime objective is "the elimination of privacy,
world-wide."

Straightened
Face:
Wal-Mart is selling a poster celebrating the Occupy Wall Street camp
at Xuccotti Park. All proceeds will go to overthrowing the 1%, not.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

NSA surveillance is not about
security, it's about power and control. Edward
Snowden.

Supplement
This: After reviewing the
available evidence – over 25 studies with over 350,000 subjects –
researchers have (once again) concluded that vitamin supplements are
unneeded, ineffective and a waste of money. Research also shows that
knowing this will not change your behavior. Wayback
Machine: Is Paul Ryan
serious or just pandering to the Tea Partiers when he says he wants
to use the need to raise the debt ceiling next spring to extort
concessions from the Democrats and shake down the country again. Has
October really faded from the rear-view mirror already?

Jailhouse
Blues: With but 5% of the
world's population, the US holds 25% of the world's prisoners. Ah,
we're number one again. Assault
& Battery: A 25
year-old Italian coed is being charged with “sexual violence” and
“causing offense to a public official” after she kissed a riot
cop's helmet visor during a protest. And Berlusconi isn't in jail?

Words
& Deeds: Shell, in
dropping its $20 billion gas-to-fluids plant, was admitting that it
projects the cost of natural gas to increase – which in turn puts
the lie to the cornucopian view of shale gas. Shell CDO Voser also
cautioned that the potential for natural gas and oil from shale
elsewhere in the world has been "a little bit overhyped".

Shortly:
According to Credit Suisse, short term investment results are based
on luck, so it pays to hire an investment advisor who is... lucky.
And pay him accordingly.

Conform
Or Go Quietly:
The Rajoy government in Spain is secure enough in its hold over
parliament and insecure enough in the public square that they plan to
make public dissent a crime. It would ban gathering outside the
parliament and most other public buildings, prevent demonstrations on
the doorsteps of politicians, fine those “demeaning Spain's image”
600,000 euros and those who take photos of on-duty police 30,000
euros. The government has already extended most police powers to the
private security goons
sector. And the recession is over and everyone is happy, it says in
the fine print.

Numbness:
Inflation was a no-show in November and is up just 1.2% for the
year. Core inflation (less food and gas) was up 0.2% m/m and 1.7%
y/y. Taper? What taper?

Hot
Off The Press: The month
of November was the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880.

Speak
No Evil: Ramzi
Binalshibh, a Guantanamo prisoner accused of helping the 9/11
attackers, was removed from his own trial for mentioning the CIA's
secret prisons – of which he has first hand knowledge. Sides:
The Ryan budget, now proudly approved by the Vichy
Democrats, feeds the war
machine while increasing the load on the lower classes. It cuts the
pay of federal workers, cuts food stamps and abolishes unemployment
insurance for over 2 million long-term unemployed. It doesn’t
raise taxes on the filthy rich, or their corporations, trusts,
endowments, and other tax dodges. Too bad 'spineless Democrats' has
become a redundancy. These decisions were once a proper subject for
discussion in the public square – back before the public square was
privatized. The goal of the oligarchs is to grab all the money and
limit government spending to things that they like. We should tax the
rich at levels that will make this a decent society. It’s us or
them. They're winning. Noted:
Detroit is not an exception; hundreds Of US cities are turning into
rotting, decaying hellholes. Jobs
and businesses are exiting the cities, and leaving poverty, crime and
desperation behind.

Good
Citizens: Boeing, which
is in the process of blackmailing union workers and seeking bribes
from state and local governments, has announced it intends to return
$10 billion to its shareholders via a share-buyback program. Worm,
Turned: GlaxoSmithKline
says it will no longer pay doctors to promote its products. Take
two aspirin and call the Justice Department.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Don't
Tell The Bernank:
Empirical data confirms that interest rates do not affect business
investment decisions, which tend to be driven by perceptions of the
risk/reward balance in new or expanded production. If no market is
seen, no investment will be made, no matter how low the interest
rate. Quoted:
"... it is pretty clear that 9/11 was state-sponsored terror …
although people argue about which
state or states were responsible." [Hint, 15 of the 19 hijackers
were Saudi Arabian citizens. Added extra: "remember that Saudi
Prince Bander – head of Saudi intelligence – helped to arm the
Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, and is now arming Al Qaeda in Syria."]

Public
Enemy Number One: Having
failed to blackmail their machinists' union in Washington, Boeing is
trolling statehouses across the country, looking for a pliable
work-force and a tax-friendly environment where it will not be
burdened with taxes or contributing to worker's pensions. Or unions.

The
First Unreformed Church of Wall Street:
According to Bloomberg, while Pope Francis is a pretty nice guy, he
“misunderstands the free market” and his comments are “
frustratingly vague, imprecise or poorly considered.” Maybe, but
he's pretty clear on the Sermon on the Mount. Deep
In The Heart Of: A judge
in Texas has resigned after being caught texting prosecutors during a
trial. Echo: Following in the useless footsteps of their fellow
parliamentarians in Pakistan, the Yemeni Parliament unanimously
demanded that the US stop using drones to
kill members of wedding parties
in Yemen. Experts agree that the US drone campaign is
counter-productive and has a destabilizing effect on the countries
that 'host' drone attack. But that may not be accidential.

Hidden
In Plain Sight:
Politicians, intimidated by cries of “class warfare,” have shied
away from making a major issue out of the ever-growing gap between
the rich and the rest. But raising taxes on the rich is not 'class
warfare' – it 'crass warfare', aimed at defattening the pigs.
Another thing, the proper term is not 'economics' but 'political
economics'. End of story.

Fair
Is Unfair: GM's CEO says
that asking shareholders to pay back the $10 billion hit the
taxpayers suffered in bailing out the company would be “unfair”.
Why would anybody want to set a precedent where the investor has to
suffer a loss when an investment goes south?

Wrong
Question: Finally a few
folks are asking “Should the NFL Lose Its Tax-Exempt Status?” but
the real
question is, “Why did the NFL ever have a tax exempt status?”
Why is one of the most profitable organizations in the country with
a CEO who rakes in more than the head of Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola, not
only tax-exempt, but able to get taxpayers to fund their stadiums –
and then pay no property taxes on them? Pot/Kettle:
College men who rape coeds say their rights are being violated when
they are punished by the schools for what should be pursued in a
court of law. Or by Heisman voters, whichever. Clip
& Save: "North
America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly." Citibank is
sure that simply adding greed to depleted Mexican oil fields will
double their output with weeks, maybe even days. Petroleum
geologists don't think so, but what do they know about finance and
investments?

Monday, December 16, 2013

Things
That Shouldn't Have To Be Said: “Poverty and associated
income inequality can be thought of as big fucking deals even if they
don't have any discernible impact on GDP or GDP growth. People may
disagree about the appropriate social welfare function, but W=GDP is
gibberish unless you truly believe that an economy with a GDP of one
greater dollar is always preferable even if that "better"
GDP involves Bill Gates earning all the monies and the rest of us
earning none.”

The
Big One, Edith: The bad news is that the supervolcano under
Yellowstone is much larger than previously thought. When it erupts
(note: when) it will cover North America with ash and change the
climate of the entire Earth. It only erupts once every 700,000 years,
but it has already been 640,000 years since its last eruption (and
+/- 700,000 years before than and another 700,000 years before that
one) . The good news is that you can only die once and the
previously estimated size was quite sufficient for the task.

Redistribution:
In the land of the rugged individualist, economic times have gone
forward into the past, a past where those who are comfortably
employed have a responsibility to those less fortunate. It is not
charity that is required; rather you should become the occasional
employer of those who do not have jobs at the moment. Even if it
means hiring them to do something you could (and often do) do for
yourself. Do your share by letting someone else make a little income
by making your life a little less stressed. No, not charity but a
form of job sharing.

Enough
Already: "Does anyone seriously think that people are
saving enough for retirement?... So, why would anyone talk about
cutting people’s Social Security benefits when it is as clear as
day that the current benefits are going to be completely inadequate
for a whole lot of people?”

Our
Town: "The criminal-justice system functions primarily
as an engine of racial and social-class oppression, as evidenced by
the huge disproportion between the racial makeup of the prison
population and the racial makeup of the country as a whole. The
United States leads the developed world in both homicide and
incarceration, and both of those evils land most heavily on poor
African Americans."

What's
Next, When's Next? Greece, Italy and Portugal are forecast
to return to growth next year, while Spain has already emerged from
recession and Ireland has ended its bailout program – according to
the numbers economists and bankers live by. But in the streets the
disconnect between economic data and reality is giving rise to
populism. Right-wing extremism and anti-European sentiment will
affect the European Parliamentary elections in May. If public anger
does explode on the streets it will come from ordinary people
desperate from five years of unemployment and poverty and
hopelessness.

Subject
For Debate: If overpopulation is the common factor behind
most of our ills, and it is, is it wrong to say that benefits to
families should not increase after their second child? Pretty much,
no. Few if any kids are conceived for their monetary value and they
should not be punished for the immorality of their parents'
decisions.

Pointed
Contention: What's worse about our economy, unemployment
or inequality? Krugman and Klein and now Bernstein – all
promoted by Summer's observation (seconded by the Pope) that the
economy doesn't work particularly well – are championing one or the
other. Or both. What's missing is the realization that inequality
and poverty and unemployment are all
symptoms of an economic system that is seriously malfunctioning.
And “the economy as capitalism run rampant” is not fixable – it
is on the way to self-destruction. And it's not just in the US;
it is global. Too bad we have to live through it. Interesting
times.

Same-old
Same-old: People (well, politicians, pundits and some actual
people) are shocked to discover that even under the ACA the insurance
companies tightly controll access to doctors, insurance plans with
affordable premiums have outrageously high deductibles, the paperwork
hasn't gotten any better nor the lady on the phone any easier to deal
with and the healthy have to subsidize the sick, and, and... Damn it,
Obamacare isn't a national single-payer system. And that's the
problem.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

If
you cannot threaten a politician's grip on power or money, why
should he listen to you?

The
Disservice Economy: The
minimum wage workers who cook and serve our food, babysit our kids
and clean our houses are today's version of the upstairs/downstairs
servants of the rich and powerful a couple of centuries ago but are
paid and treated worse. Rush
To Judgment:The GOP
punditry seem convinced that the 2014 election will hinge on the
voters' disllike for Obamacare. This depends on the ACA remaining a
headline disaster for nearly another year, which seems unlikely. The
economy is far more likely to be the deciding factor, and there the
Republicans have a far better chance of voter disgust carrying the
day.

Forward
Gluidance: The dollar will
either continue its slide against the euro through 2014, reaching
$1.40 per euro for the first time since 2011 (Goldman) or it will
strengthen to end 2014 at $1.28 per euro (everybody else). Plan your
vacation accordingly. Fire
Sale: November's retail
sales were up a whopping 0.7% m/m. TKO: The main thing you need to
know about today's budget agreement is that it's very modest.
It addresses about 2.5% of the total federal budget. It repeals a
little bit of the sequester cuts, and pays for it with a few small
cuts in entitlements and some even smaller increases in user fees.
Overall, the numbers are tiny enough that it's hard to see how anyone
can get either too excited or too outraged over it. Except the far
right, of course. Why they are not happy is a mystery - the budgets
arrived at are lower than the pipe-dream Ryan 2011 budget.
Republicans have massively changed the spending conversation since
2010, and austerity
has won.

Quoted:
“The
evidence suggests that capitalism has become wholly predatory and has
given up any pretext of being a socially responsible socioeconomic
system...”

The
DNAvinci Code:
Geneticists have discovered a second biologic code hidden within the
DNA double helix. DNA's function has thought to be limited to a set
of instructions for constructing protein chains. The new code
appears to be instructions that help stabilize beneficial features of
certain proteins. The discovery could open new doors to the
diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Mumble
Jumble: The US Producer
Price Index fell for a third straight month as US disinflation
continues. In the 12 months through November, producer prices
increased 0.7%,which suggests the Fed's attempts to push inflation
upward have been less than wildly successful and giving it room for
ever more quantitative easing. Or other experiments.

All
Over But The Suffering:
Ireland has “exited” from its IMF/EU/ECB bailout, whatever that
means. What it doesn't mean is that everything is hunky-dory in the
land unemployed elves and shamrock pickers. It doesn't mean they've
paid back any of the $117 billion they had to borrow. And it doesn't
mean that the grinding austerity programs will end any time soon.
Government spending will be further slashed this year and next. Ah,
the Luck of the Irish. Porn
O'Graph:
The Tomato that didn't eat Washington.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Those who want speedy and tidy
resolution of our problems do not want a democratic one.

Flim
Flam Men: Remember the
Good Olde Days when unemployment fell to 7.0% because everybody left
the job market and 471,000 low-wage retail serfs were hired for the
Christmas season? Remember back when fewer than 300,000 newly
unemployed signed up for benefits? That was then. Y'know, last week.
This week 368,00
filled for unemployment - a 23.5% increase. It'll give them time
to walk around the mall looking at those lucky enough to have
someplace to go, something to do. Different
Difference:
To expect people to act 'rationally' as the economists define
'rational' is irrational. Not everything reduces to money; even a
few economists like their wives...

What's
For Supper?
Faced with the highest poverty levels in a quarter century - 15% of
the population and 22% of American children - the House votes to pass
a $633
billion defense spending bill while cutting food stamp spending
by $40 billion over the next ten years - saving taxpayers 0.5% of
what they spend on pissing money away in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen,
Syria and wherever's next. Oh, wait. The money we spend on wars
doesn't count against the defense budget, they're covered by special
allocations. Multiple
Choice: Why is the U.S.
getting in the U.N.’s way of making drinking water a right? (a)
Profits.

Global
Warning: Average
temperatures in Australia this spring were 1.57°C (3ºF) above the
1961-1990 average. September averaged 2.75°C ( 5°F) above normal.
Last summer was the hottest on record - so hot that the weather
bureau had to add new colors to its maps - which now top out at 129
°F. Naturally the Australian Senate is debating the repeal of its
carbon tax.

Fill
In The Blank: “_________
is a Greedy, Freeloading Corporation That Screws American Taxpayers
and Workers.”

Them
vs. US: A US drone killed
15 people on their way to a wedding. No, not in Pakistan, Yemen this
time. The group "was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy." Sky,
Not Falling: Just when
you thought things couldn't get worse, they're getting better. At
least the kids are: The teen birth rate is at a record low - less
than half what it was in 1991. Teen abortions are at an all time low
- half of what it was in the 1970's. And teen pregnancy is also at
an all time low - down 50% from 1990. Maybe it's the weak economy.

Fails
Laugh Test: Vladimir Putin
insists that Russia has no interest in becoming a superpower nor in
telling others how they should live.

Banditos: Oil at all stages of
production, refining and distribution has been the legal property of
the Mexican people since 1938. But Mexican's are too poor and too
dumb to properly exploit their resources, so the Mexican Congress -
as bought and paid for as the American one - has decided to let
companies such as BP and Exxon "develop" Mexico's petroleum
resources. The change will also let companies such as BP and Exxon
pay Mexico a pittance and send the profits to whatever off-shore tax
haven they chose. Mexican oil production has fallen 25% since 2004 as
their major oil fields become depleted. But big-bucks and faith will
- it is hoped - defeat geology. If you don't think the people of
Mexico are going to be the losers, you missed some of my earlier
lectures.

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.